1. Field
The present invention relates to the field of exercise devices, and more specifically to adapters for bars with compressible and retractable shafts.
2. Background
Personal training has become increasingly popular in the last decade. Sophisticated training equipment is continuously devised, and new methods of isolating muscles or increasing cardiovascular fitness are always being developed and refined. In particular, many devices attempt to focus on pectoral muscles, such as chest press or chest fly machines. In these machines, a user sits on said machine and pushes outward on handles connected to weights by means of rods or cables. In other exercise machines, such as machine-assisted bench presses, a user lies down and lifts a bar of weight, guided along rails.
Many devices, and in particular barbells, have been devised in order to increase the amount of work done by the pectoral muscle during a chest press, and the total area of the muscle affected by the exercise. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,149 (Wilson), U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,300 (Hightower), U.S. Pat. No. 7,086,999 (Jeneve et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 7,862,486 (Watson) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,892,158 (Varga) disclose various types of rods or barbells to further provide a work out for pectoral muscles.
In particular, Watson and Hightower disclose a barbell with rotating handgrips. The rotational handgrips are utilized in order for a user to further increase muscle building, as it provides pronation and supination motion to increase load on wrists, elbows and forearms. The main issue with said devices is that they cannot provide any additional load to the inner pectoral muscles as well to the deltoids and back. Indeed, the rotating handles simply affect the pronation and supination motion which in turn affects forearms, wrists and elbows. If additional, concentrated work needs to be done to the pectoral, deltoid and back muscles, this is not possible with these devices.
Other devices such as disclosed by Varga, Wilson and Jeneve et al. can fix the aforementioned issues, as they each disclose a rod and barbell with slidable handles along its shaft. Varga's device specifically discloses a tube with slidable handles, meant to be utilized in order to increase the difficulty of pushups with respect to pectoral muscles. A user positions himself or herself for a pushup, with hands on the handles. The handles can then slide along the tube by means of linear bearing assemblies. Wilson discloses a shaft, also with slidable handles in between sets of coiled springs. A user grips onto the handles of the shaft, and slides the handles laterally along the axis of the shaft, engaging the coiled springs such that a more complete muscle workout is achieved. Although not specifically meant to be utilized as a barbell, the slidable handles add additional pressure onto the pectoral muscles. Jeneve et al. discloses a barbell with weight attachment means, meant to be utilized for bench presses, with slidable handles along its shaft. Indeed, as user lies down with the barbell and weights onto the weight attachment means, when performing a chest press, the user can slide the handles laterally along the axis of the shaft in order to further increase resistance to pectoral muscles.
Unfortunately, while Varga, Wilson and Jeneve's devices can provide a further work out to the pectoral muscles, they each have problems that need to be overcome. Specifically, Wilson's bar cannot support weight, such that it can simply be used for stretching and light exercise purposes. Arguably, even if weight attachment means were present, the weights would cause a possible imbalance on the barbell as the user would struggle to slide the handles along the coiled springs. The coiled springs would not necessarily compress or retract in a mirrored fashion, causing the weight to tip on one side or another and render this device ineffective. Meanwhile, Varga's device is again not suited for weights. The device simply supports the upper body weight of a user, and uses a bearing system to slide the handles along the axis of the tube. Since it is not designed to support weight, the bearing system would provide the same faults as Wilson's device, as the bar would never be able to balance itself and would tilt one way or another, causing injury. Finally, Jeneve's device consists of a barbell with weight attachment means, specifically designed for a bench press workout whereby the handles slide along the axis of the barbell. Jeneve uses a cable/belt and pulley system, such that there are four pulleys within the bar itself and the handles consequently remain equidistant from one another. A first, wider tube is telescopically fitted within a second, narrower tube that encompasses the belt and pulley system. This system's pulley system is not sturdy and can cause problems when a user is using it in an exercise room. Further, while the patent discloses a damper system, it does not state how this system would work or be implemented with a pulley barbell. Jeneve's device also may be difficult to fix or replace as there are many moving parts within it.
Overall, all five enumerated patents have problems that need to be overcome in order for a device to properly incorporate slidable handles to adequately work out pectoral, deltoid and back muscles. The present device can overcome all of these issues, while using a completely different type of compression-retraction means that will be further explained below.